NO ASF-FREE DECLARATION

LINGAYEN–Just as Pangasinan was about to be declared “African Swine Fever (ASF)-free,” blood samples taken from 30 dead hogs bought by a local trader in Barangay Apalen, Bayambang from Camiling, Tarlac, were confirmed on October 16 to have died from AFS.

The 30 hogs were among 60 others bought from adjacent Camiling by a hog trader known only by his family name Cañezo. It was residents of Barangay Apalen, who saw the dead pigs, who reported the matter to Gov. Amado Espino III.

Immediately, Gov. Espino alerted the Department of Agriculture regional office about the matter and dispatched Acting Provincial Veterinarian Jovito Tabarejos to the area to investigate and take immediate steps to contain the disease.

He also directed P/Colonel Redrico Maranan, police provincial director, to cordon off Barangay Apalen, while the plan to depopulate hogs in the barangay is being readied and to implement the “1-7-10 protocol” from Barangay Apalen.

The protocol requires that all hogs within the one-kilometer radius from Barangay Apalen will be depopulated or culled and buried while movement of hogs within the seven-kilometer radius will be restricted and the blood samples of 30 hogs per barangay will be taken at random to check if they too are infected with ASF; hogs within the 10-kilometer radius from Barangay Apalen will be monitored and there will be mandatory reporting of any sick pig.     

As of 5:00 p.m. Thursday, a common grave for the dead hogs and other healthy hogs to be culled was already being dug in Barangay Apalen with the use of a buck hoe.

Butch Velasco, provincial information officer, clarified that the incidents in Barangay Apalen; and Barangay Baloling in Mapandan, which are about 25 kilometers apart, are totally unrelated.

He said Gov. Espino was just waiting for a call from DA Regional Executive Director Lucrecio Alviar about the declaration of Pangasnan as ASF-free anew when the problem in Barangay Apalen was reported.

Velasco said Dr. Tabarejos as of 7:00 p.m. Thursday has yet to report his findings on what happened and on how come the hogs from Camiling, Tarlac were not intercepted by a quarantine checkpoint between Pangasinan and Tarlac. 

 He added that because of the incident in Barangay Apalen, Bayambang, Gov. Espino has ordered double red alert in quarantine checkpoints in all entry points of Pangasinan.  (Leonardo Micua)   

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